Presently, for multiple drawers lined up vertically to effectively prevent simultaneous opening of the drawer above or underneath, an interlock mechanism is implemented.
As shown in FIG. 1, a traditional drawer interlock mechanism 1 is implemented for multiple drawers lined up vertically. FIG. 2 shows the traditional drawer interlock mechanism 1′, mainly composed of a fixation base 11′, an axial cam 12′, two braking slides 13′ and a switch 21′ of a slide 2′. The axial cam 12′ uses an axle 121′ to place in an axial hole 111′ of the fixation base 11′, so when a top convex 122′ is being moved by the switch 21′ of the slide 2′ and locking into or taking off the top guiding groove 22′, the axial cam can make 90-degree rotation.
However, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the above-mentioned axial cam 12′ has a steel ball 125′ that is in the bottom groove hole 123′ and subject to regular push by a spring 124′. It also has a bottom convex point 126′ on the other side of the bottom. On the sticking plate at the front end of the rail 3′, there are two grooves 31′ separated by 90 degrees, a guiding groove 32 and a penetrating hole 33′. The bottom convex 126′ corresponds to the guiding groove 32′ in the rail 3′ and serves to limit the position of the axial cam 12′ in rotation. The steel ball 125′ is subject to regular push against the sticking plate at the front end of the rail 3″, so when the axial cam 12′ is rotating, it can be positioned in the two groove 31′ for making 90-degree rotation. Thus, such a way to achieve positioning of the axial cam 12′ in 90-degree rotation involves many components and complicated design. Furthermore, such design needs riveting to place the axis 121′ in the penetrating hole 33′ on the sticking plate at the front end of the rail 3′ as shown in FIG. 4. This causes a tedious process of assembly and relatively high manufacturing cost, which lowers the product competitiveness.
Please refer to FIG. 2 and FIG. 5. The above-mentioned braking slides 13′ are inserted into the slide groove holes 112′ of the fixation base 111′ and fit each other to be against the axial cam 12′. When the axial cam 12′ is making 90-degree rotation, it moves the two braking slides 13′ outward and drives the braking rod 4′ on the axial cam 12′ to activate with the locking mechanism for the top or bottom drawer. Because the braking slide 13′ has one sticking positioning component 131′ on one side that needs special orientation for assembly, it causes inconvenience. Furthermore, when the drawer interlock mechanism 1′ is integrated with the slide 2′ and the rail 3′ to form a single unit configuration, the entire unit is placed on the drawer and the two braking slides 13′ do not provide effective blockage. As a result, the braking slide 13′ underneath falls off the fixation base 11′. It requires separate assembly for the braking slide 13′ and takes much labor.